Dannie Kitten's Gaming Year

You may have read about my "Top Three Games of 2015" on Honest Games Reviews (http://honestgamesreviews.com/blog/hgrs-games-of-2015/) but as I mentioned there, I don't think picking just three games has given enough credit to the games of 2015. So I have chosen to expand upon that here and give you my top picks of 2015. 

I have found 2015 to be a great year for gaming. There have been a massive number of Indie and AAA games that have been hugely enjoyable. I've been thinking about formats in which I could write about my picks of the year...a top ten, choosing the best of the genres etc. And in truth I still don't know how I'm going to tell you about my favourite gaming moments this year. So I'm just gonna start writing and see where it takes me...

Best Game for Kids: There have been plenty of games I have been able to enjoy with my son this year and in fact I was going to give this to Octodad: Deadliest Catch purely based on how much time we spent laughing together at it. But seeing as this is the award for kids I should probably ask my kid what he thinks and his vote goes to Lego Dimensions because it's "really, really good. About a 1000% good" because "you can go in Homer Simpson's world as Batman". I should point out that this is one of the main reasons Lego Dimensions is great, unlike Disney Infinity which only allows you to use certain toys in certain areas Lego Dimensions gives you free reign to play as whoever you want whenever you want, which has gone down a storm in my house. 

Best Xbox One Exclusive: Some people love them, some people hate them but there's no denying that console exclusivity is here to stay. I'm not going to count timed exclusives in here, because unless you're a really impatient person you can get the game on any console at some point in time. These categories are for the games that will never see the light of day on the "rival" console. So with that in mind it is Gears of War:Ultimate Edition that has to win this crown. I know, I know it is a re-release BUT it is a damn perfect re-release of a game that is actually pretty old. Seriously load up the original and just feel how clunky it is. 

Best PS4 Exclusive: Now I bought my PS4 when I felt like there were enough exclusives on it that I wanted to play. A lot of people give Sony stick for not having exclusives, but I don't really understand where this comes from...I found it much harder to nail down my favourite PS4 exclusive of the year. I haven't been able to play some of the games I have on this yet, so they obviously couldn't enter into the list (sorry Bloodborne!). I opted for the game that I primarily bought the PS4 for, Until Dawn. I bought this and my brother came round the next night to play it and over the next couple of weeks I saw him much more than usual! Until Dawn is basically a game of a cheesy 90's horror film...and that's what makes it GREAT! Graphically the game is superb and the game really does have plenty of shocks. I can't wait to play it again and hopefully save more people!

Best Wii U: Seeing as we've given awards to PS4 and XB1 exclusives we obviously need to do it for the Wii U too. Choosing this was pretty hard too, much harder than it was choosing for XB1. But really there has been one truly stand out game on the Wii U and it ties in with the below award too...

Best Fan Service Game: In a year that saw a bazillion games getting a HD remake "because the fans wanted it" this award should have been a lot harder to give out. But in my mind the only game that can be considered a true fan service this year is Super Mario Maker for the Wii U. Super Mario Maker gave Mario fans the world over the power (and an incredible interface!) to make their own Mario levels. Honestly the UI is something dreams are made of and the ability to share your levels online and download other means you will never run out of Mario levels to try. 

Best Co-op: I love to play games co-op but this year, this gen even, I don't think there have been enough co-op games. Ark: Survival Evolved has changed that, finally. Ark is a great survival game, but it gets infinitely better when played alongside friends. Find it in Early Access now and grab it (if you're not one of 1,000,000+ who has already).

Best Multiplayer: I'm using multiplayer as online and against others to shoehorn this one in here really. And you can play the winner of this co-op in what is actually my favourite mode but anyway Star Wars: Battlefront is my multiplayer game of the year. Which is a good job seeing as the majority of the game is in the Online section. Fast and slick (when you're not suffering from lag anyway) Star Wars Battlefront is the most fun I've had in an online shooter for ages. 

Most Graphically Impressive: There have been many games this year that have been pretty damn beautiful. Hell seeing an AT-AT go down in Star Wars Battlefront is an amazing experience. But I have to say I find myself most blown away by Rise of the Tomb Raider. Even now when I have played a fair bit of it, I still find myself loading it up and being surprised at just how gorgeous it is. 

Shooter of the Year: As much as I have enjoyed the aforementioned Star Wars Battlefront it isn't my shooter of the year. Splatoon on the Wii U is. Just like Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare  did when that was released Splatoon brings the fun back into an over-saturated market, and it is family-friendly which will always win out in this house. But even if you don't have kids to play it with Splatoon is well worth picking up.

Best Character: The last time I did a gaming award thing was a few years ago and Kenny from Telltale's The Walking Dead won it. This award is just a little nod to a fun or well-written character. This year I found it quite hard really, as even though we've had many a brilliant game I don't think there has been much in the way of great characters. It was going to go to Chumbucket from Mad Max because he really did make me laugh, but I felt like this would be to cheapen the award. Life is Strange offered us some great characters but the dialogue was sometimes a bit jarring, which initially put me off giving this award to a character from that. But after much deliberation the only character this award could have gone to is Chloe. She is a really well-written character; she is flawed, scared and angry with a myriad of issues but she's also loyal and fierce. It was great fun getting to know her and I hope to see more of her again.

Best Telltale Game: Ok maybe I'm cheating here, giving Telltale their very own category but bear with me. This year saw the release of three (!) episodic Telltale games: Tales from the Borderlands, Minecraft: Story Mode and Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series. I have been lucky enough to play all three so I'm going to tell you which one you should buy if, for some crazy reason you have limited yourself to just one. And the answer is...Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series every time. This game was the perfect foray into the world of Westeros, featuring plenty of betrayal and nastiness from some of our favourite characters from the show (honestly Cersei's smirk translates just as well to a game world). This game truly pulls the rug out from under you multiple times throughout, and it is all the better for it. 

Honourable Mentions: There are a lot of games that I have had a LOT of fun with this year, so I'm going to give them a mention because I want to spread the love. 

The Escapists - One of the first games I streamed on Twitch when I began earlier this year, it is a great little sandbox game where you have to escape from different prisons. DLC is cheap for those looking for more places to escape from and there has even been FREE DLC! 

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture - I know this game got a lot of stick for being a "walking-sim" but when you really delve into it, was you get is a great story that is beautifully realised. Honestly I was flicking through my Twitter pics the other day and screens of this game were sandwiched between pictures I had taken at Lyme Park. I had to do a double take. It is THAT beautiful.

Sparkle Unleashed - I love me a good ball-busting puzzle game and this has filled the Zuma shaped hole in my XB1. And even though Zuma is now available through backwards compatibility I still find myself down "just one more level" on this. 

Plague Inc. Evolved - A late entry because I only picked it up in the sale but this iOS game has made a great transition to the home console. Well worth picking up!

King's Quest - Another episodic game, but this is releasing much further apart than anything Telltale does and has 1000G per episode! It's a great little game that serves as a decent nostalgia kick for any 90's point and click fans out there. 

Quest of Dungeons - A great little game that you put on for ten minutes and end up forgetting to feed the dog (or children) because of. Buy it.

Ori and the Blind Forest -  This game doesn't need me to give it an honourable mention, I'm yet to speak to someone who didn't love it. But it was a beauty of a game and if you haven't already you should play it. Now. 

Anyone who follows HonestGameReviews will have already read what is below, but if you haven't please read on to find out what my Top Three Picks of 2015 were. I think 2015 has been a damn good year for gaming and I'm excited to see what 2016 can bring us. I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year and I'll see you all in 2016! 

3. The Swindle

The Swindle is easily my favourite indie game of the year and is the perfect example of a simple premise that has been perfectly executed. The graphics are good but the controls and handling are where this game really shines, it is just so slick and responsive. The aim of the game is to complete a number of heists in the hope of doing the big one within 100 days. Each heist is different as they're all randomly generated so no two players games will be the same. Your character can die (mine does a LOT which I'm sure anyone who watches my Twitch streams is surprised to hear) but you can respawn with a new one minus all of the upgrades you had purchased. The Swindle is the perfect game to have pinned for whenever you have a spare ten minutes, but be warned ten minutes is never enough on The Swindle.

2. Life is Strange

Life is Strange is an episodic game that, to date, I have only played through once so it obviously hasn't had that many hours put into it. But this game makes it onto the top three list anyway because it is just that good. Yeah the dialogue is sometimes pretty cringe-y but Life is Strange deals with ideas that are rarely touched upon in this medium and it does it really well. In a year that saw a huge slew of episodic games Life is Strange is the standout title for sure. The graphical style is beautiful and whimsical making Arcadia Bay one of my favourite game locations of the year. For the most part the characters are engaging and well-written, but the best thing about this game is the way in which it explores "The Butterfly Effect". As always I'm spoiler free so I won't go into much more detail, but I see this being in a sale in the not so distant future and if you haven't already bought it then you should definitely pick it up then. Life is Strange is a brave idea of a game that actually worked and I can't wait to play it through again.

1. Fallout 4

Anyone who knows me knows I am a HUGE fan of the Fallout franchise, and well, Bethesda in general. Bethesda can do no wrong for me and Fallout 4 has just cemented that for me. Fallout 4 has offered a vast improvement on all previous Fallout games and given us yet another amazing open world to explore. Graphics aren't quite as shiny as some of the other offerings this year, but it's a new Fallout game so most of us can forgive it for that. And for the first time your character has an actual voice - something I never realised I missed in previous Fallout games until this one. You don't need me to go into a ton of detail about a game as huge as Fallout 4, unless you've lived in a bunker you know of it and what it offers to gamers. Fallout 3 had always been the game I'd take to a desert island but Fallout 4 has hopped, skipped and jumped right over it. I have sunk many an hour into it already and barely scratched it's surface. But the time I've spent in the Commonwealth isn't nearly enough, and I fear that I could spend a year of my life on it and still miss some of it's offerings. If you're looking for a game that offers MASSIVE value for money look no further. Buy it. Now.

Worst Game of 2015: Toro

I mean, seriously, if this isn't on everyones worst games list it'll be a miracle. Everything about it is terrible and it had the honour of being the first game I ever deleted from my XB1 and gave a 0 star rating when forced to review it. To be fair on RecoTech they seemed to take all of the stick I sent their way quite well, even sending me multiple copies of their next release for review and giveaways. I'm still trying to decide whether that was meant as more of a punishment though...

One to Watch in 2016: Gears 4

I found this really tough to narrow down, and I was hoping I'd pick a little known indie or something less mainstream. But I'm a MASSIVE Gears fan and I am thoroughly invested in the universe so the opportunity to play another Gears game on the new hardware is hugely exciting for me. With the release of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition earlier this year my excitement for another Gears instalment only grew and I can't wait! Sorry to anyone reading this who was hoping to see something they had missed for next year!

Game of Thrones Ep. 6 (Xbox One) - Review

Well I have well and truly effed things up for the Forrester's....

As I mentioned in my review of Episode 5 of the Telltale Game of Thrones series I felt like they were tying up as much as they could ready for an epic finale. Well I was right.

My heart was pounding from beginning to end during this episode as I watched things go from bad to worse for the Forrester's because of the decisions I had made in the previous episodes. As ever this review will be spoiler free, which I'm sure you are aware is a very difficult task when speaking of Telltale games so as such it will be a fairly short one.

Every arcing story from the previous episodes comes to a head in this final episode. A bloody mess of a head, for me at least. It is nothing short of thrilling from beginning to end, that has left me INCREDIBLY excited for the now confirmed Season 2.

The ending did feel abrupt, but I think that may be because of the dire state I had lead the poor Forrester's into. Decisions I had made previously came back full force to bite me in the ass and I was constantly kicking myself for being such a bitch/walkover/idiot in the previous episodes. Usually game finales have a final swan song for the games hero, but mine (at least) just kinda limped to a very sad and sorry end. And you know what? That made it all the greater.

Telltale does as G.R.R.M does - that is give you a character, make you feel for them and want things for them and the cruelly snatches them away in the bloodiest of ways. Would we want anything else? This game has been as true to the series it comes from as I ever could have hoped for and I can't wait for more. But first I'm gonna replay it all as closely together as I can and come back with a spoilerific review for all of those interested. Keep your eyes peeled!*

*That is once I can tear myself away from the wasteland that is The Commonwealth. Sorry folks.

80 Days (Steam) - Review

80 Days is available now on Steam and is priced at £6.99.

I've spent all day playing this game - well a good seven hours of my day - which considering I own Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront is a pretty big deal. Something about it just kept me going.

80 days sees you become Philes Fogg's valet, Passepartout, as you try and circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. You must find routes from place to place, look after Fogg's health and make the money necessary for your travels as you try and win the Fogg's bet.

I have yet to do it in the required 80 days. On my 1st attempt I did it in 95 days which I didn't think was too bad for a first run. On my second play through I had gotten to Yokohama in 25 days, but then had to wait for ages for a bank loan and then the bank to re-open after the weekend. Gutted. I managed that in 93 days.

I think what is just so addictive about this game is the need to do it in 80 days. I feel compelled to do it now, and can't imagine I will leave this game alone until I have done. The writing in the game is brilliant, I honestly didn't expect to find it as entertaining as I did. The story is great and takes loads of different paths. At times it reminded me of the 'create your own adventure' books I had as a child - no bad thing - and I half expected to be told I was stabbed in the street the moment I turned my back if I picked the wrong dialogue option.

The game tracks all of your attempts too and shows the routes you have taken on a globe in the menu. When you do go in for another try (which you will!) you are shown your previous routes. At first this confused me and I didn't realise I hadn't opened that route in this game yet, leading to a few wasted days. But once you realise what is happening it's a great way to maximise the amount of cities you've visited.

In my opinion 80 Days is really pretty cheap for the amount of fun you can have it with it. If you're hankering for a challenge then grab it now. But everyone should at least put this in their Steam Wishlist and wait for a sale. You won't regret it.

9/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Empire TV Tycoon (Steam) - Review

Empire TV Tycoon is available now on Steam and is priced at £9.99 (though it is on sale for £7.49 at the minute).

I love tycoon style games. Tycoons and simulators are pretty much my most played games on a PC. I've bought Theme Hospital about 7 different times in my life because I love that game so much. Tycoon games are great for a lazy Sunday morning in bed, until you've realised you've spent the entire day on it. Empire TV Tycoon had big holes to fill.

So in Empire TV Tycoon you run a TV channel where you compete with two other TV channels that run from the same building as you. You are not building this studio from the ground up like you'd expect from a simulator game and are instead taking control of one that already has a building, a small amount of viewers and some films to show. You have to increase on everything basically - more viewers, get more films in your library etc. etc.

Now what it does, it does pretty well and I've whiled away a fair few hours on it now trying to get my station to the top. I haven't managed it yet as I have gone too far into the red after a week or so because I kept trying to make full feature films. Yes you can also employ a script writer and make films in house, but this can be an incredibly costly way to increase your film library. I didn't learn, even after the first three attempts and kept trying to make all of the David Attenborough documentaries and feature length Star Wars films. Wow my bank balance went really red.

But Empire TV Tycoon is let down by its simplicity and I don't mean how easy it is to complete, seeing as I haven't yet. But I'd have really loved to have had to start from the ground up; try and broker deals with advertisement agencies, be able to run billboard campaigns for upcoming shows weeks in advance and be able to see a more in-depth analysis of just who was watching at certain times. You can see a general description of who was watching at certain times - smh as elders or kids - but oddly there are no children's shows that you can show, you just have to pick something that doesn't sound too bad and hope for the best. I also found that the children category were watching TV waaayyyy too late into the night, in my opinion you should be able to program a children's hour or some such and then go onto all the more gory stuff without the fear of a rogue child popping up in the audience.

I can't say I've not had fun with Empire TV Tycoon though, because I really have. I just wish there was more to it. But for a tenner or less this is well worth a punt if you're anything like me and love a good tycoon game. Try it out guys.

7/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Kaiju Panic (Xbox One) - Review

Kaiju Panic is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £11.99.

Kaiju Panic is an insanely bright and cutesy tower-defense x RTS, seriously you made need to don your sunglasses if you're the type of gamer the Daily Fail writes about. The way the villages are set out kinda reminded me of an old Pokemon game - just not as pixelated.

Anyway you've been tasked with evacuating the village whilst defending against the invading kaiju. You need to harvest the purple stuff so that you can spend it on defence and artillery. Collect the villagers and they'll follow you around like Pikmin and speed up any of your constructions. Simple.

Except I didn't think it was, as the learning curve is just too steep - that or I'm just a bit shit, which is a very real possibility. I like to think I'm a fan of a good old tower defense and to be fair I rock at Defense Grid, but I found this game a little too fast and frenetic. In contrast to the corridors of Defense Grid, Kaiju come from all over the map and take unpredictable paths to the village, making it difficult to place turrets for maximum efficiency. This left me hurriedly attempting to put down some artillery in the way of the invading Kaiju, but often I wasn't fast enough.

The game is very well presented. My son was incredibly excited to play it after watching me but unfortunately found it too difficult. I think the art style does really pull in the younger audience, but be wary of buying this solely for your child as the chances are they'll find it too hard and turn off. If you're after a cute but tough tower defense game then you could do much worse than picking up Kaiju Panic!

6/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Whispering Willows (Xbox One) - Review

Whispering Willows is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £7.99.

In it you play as a young girl called Elena who has the power to leave her body thanks to a necklace she is wearing, you use this power to navigate the spooky old mansion to find her missing father. The necklace will glow blue when there is a benevolent spirit nearby and red for the nastier, more menacing ghosties.

The story is expanded upon by gathering notes and speaking to every blue spirit you come across. Some of these blue guys will want you to go and do something for you, and you do spend the majority of your time in game having to find an item in order to progress. In a game with more going on this wouldn't be a problem, but in Whispering Willows it gets pretty tedious REALLY fast.

The game sounded pretty cool, despite the cover art looking like a cheap old XBLIG title. The game is actually really nice looking though, much better than I expected judging it solely on it's cover. The sound in game is impressive too, setting a spooky atmosphere quite well.

I can't honestly say that I enjoyed my time with Whispering Willows, I was just kinda going through the motions and with such great games out there and Fallout 4 just around the corner (squuueueeee!) who has the time for a game like that?! Wait for a sale guys.

4/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.

Toto Temple Deluxe (Xbox One) - Review

Toto Temple Deluxe is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £7.99.

Toto Temple Deluxe is a simple local multiplayer game that sees you battling to keep a goat balanced on your head. No, really that's what this game entails.

It reminded me a lot of #IDARB as it is a game that is simple to pick up and difficult to master. Obviously this game doesn't feature rick-rolls so #IDARB wins out but you can't have it all, right?

Keep the goat on your head and collect coins and power ups to beat your friends or family. It really is that simple. There are a few other game modes that can involve blowing up the opposing team with a bomb you trigger when they're in the vicinity. Toto Temple Deluxe is just fun for everyone. We have tried to play #IDARB with my son, but he find it a little too frustrating to get the ball in the goal. No such worries with Toto Temple Deluxe though, which means he is whooping me on a game fairly frequently these days - I thought I still had a few years of being better than him. Dammit.

Try it out if you have a decent Rewards pay back this month. Otherwise wait it out, with it's family-friendly feel I imagine this game will go on sale before the holiday season.

7/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review. 

Crimsonland (Xbox One) - Review

Crimsonland is available now on Xbox One and is priced at £9.99.

Crimsonland is a remaster of a PC game released way back in 2003, which has since been re-released on both PS4 and Xbox One. It's a top down twin-stick shooter all about wiping out the waves of enemies that come your way.

It reminded me a lot of a game I loved on the Xbox 360, the XBLIG title I Maed A Gam3 With Zombies In It!!!1, most probably best recognised from this song. This was a twin-stick shooter that was challenging, but more importantly a lot of fun, something which Crimsonland emulates and expands upon perfectly.

The controls are slick and super-responsive, as they should be with this type of game. Graphically the game is just ok really, but can any of us say we play a twin-stick for the visuals?! No, we play them for the quick, mindless sense of gratification that comes with mowing down hundreds of enemies with minimal effort. In a slight move away from the usual twin-stick controls though, Crimsonland has you pressing RT to actually fire your weapon, something which I struggled with at first but ultimately ended up feeling like it added to the experience of the game.

Crimsonland has two modes, Quest and Survival. Quest features 70 levels that each pits you against waves of enemies, with plenty of unlockables and power-ups to collect. Obviously these levels get a little more difficult as you progress through the game, but I found the curve to be just right really - actually erring on the easy side if you played with a friend. Survival mode is what you'd expect, but there a few different variants within the mode to playa round with.

Overall I'd say Crimsonland is a solid addition to the Xbox One game library. I went into the game not expecting to think that much of it if I am honest, but in the end I was really enjoying myself. At £9.99 I would say it is a little pricey - I would have been more comfortable recommending it to you if it was around the £7.99 mark instead. But with a sale probably somewhere in the not so distant future I'd say this is a game that is definitely worth picking up.

8/10 BUY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review

Mad Max (Xbox One) - Review

Mad Max is available now on the Xbox One and is priced at £49.99 on the Xbox One digital store.

Reviews have slowed down a little here at the minute, I have found myself in the wonderful position of having a LOT of games on my review list - even luckier to have this and a few other big ones to sink my time into. But on the flipside i have also found myself with less time to actually play, let alone write up my thoughts on these games. So here are my rather belated thoughts on Mad Max.

I had never seen a Mad Max film prior to Fury Road, which I only really watched as a precursor to playing this game. I did enjoy it, although not enough to watch the originals. Sorry. Whilst I was watching Fury Road I was imagining all of the things that might carry over into the game and getting myself all excited for the possibilities. Unfortunately, or at least I think it's unfortunate, Mad Max the games isn't a tie in to the film. It shares it's main character and a universe, but ultimately it is a separate, stand alone tale of The Wasteland. Let me explain why I found this disappointing...

Mad Max, whilst it has it's merits, has many, many moments of being just too damn repetitive for its own good. The game feels like a slow trudge through fetch quest after fetch quest rather than the adrenaline-fuelled game I had kinda been expecting. But despite this - which is the thing people have knocked this game for most - I have really enjoyed my time with Mad Max.

I got this at the same time as I got MGS V: The Phantom Pain, a game that is just so pressurised (for me at least) that Mad Max was perfect for counteracting the stress of failing yet again to be anything close to stealthy. Mad Max is a game that gives you multiple tools of destruction to just go wild with in The Wasteland. Yeah ammo, water and fuel is apparently scarce, but I found you always had enough to enjoy a bit of Wasteland carnage. And let's not forget your biggest weapon of destruction - your Magnum Opus - is nigh on indestructible, with the help of everyones favourite mutant, Chumbucket.

I streamed a fair bit of this game on my Twitch channel (twitch.tv/danniekitten, thanks for asking!) and those who tuned in will no doubt remember how much I sucked at it. But aside from the embarrassment of sucking in front of people from the internet, I didn't care! This is a new feeling for me, I HATE not completing things as close to perfect as possible usually, but with Mad Max I could let it all go and allow my version of Max to die numerous times without so much as an increase in heart rate. It's not that I didn't care about the fate of my character - although now I think of it I guess i didn't really - it was just quite a lot of fun to go into a massive group of enemies all guns blazing, no matter the outcome. Plus when you die and regenerate progress is saved, meaning the next time you take a chance on that particular fort any groups of enemies you amy have killed have remained dead. This is not the case for single grunts however, you have to have killed the whole gaggle of miscreants for them to not respawn with you.

Graphically I thought this game was pretty impressive, especially when you go up in the balloons to scout the map. Because come on, this is a Ubisoft game and they are apparently incomplete until they feature at least 12 things for you to scale in order to fill in a relatively tiny portion of your map. Up close some of the textures are a little 'old' looking, but overall I'd say this game looks pretty damn good.

Obviously you can customise your Magnum Opus, which saw me incredibly excited because I could pick an old American car that reminded me of the Anthill Mob from Wacky Racers. However, this joy was short-lived, as it transpired that you have to go about collecting other car bodies so as to move forward with the story. Not fair. I wanted my Magnum Opus to be my ONLY Magnum Opus, not just one body in a whole catalogue available to me. Not only did that take away from the special-ness (I know that's not a word) of my car, but it also cheapened the whole Mad Max universe. Everything is hard to come by, but whole car bodies?! Not a problem, there's a spare in every junkyard. You can also customise Max, to an extent, upgrading both his clothes (armor) and his beard. Yes, his beard is a customisable object, going from Nathan Drake-esque stubble to full Tom Hanks in Castaway in a few simple steps. I donned the long hair and beard and played the game thinking of my Max as a Wasteland version of Opie from Sons of Anarchy, because I was a little bit in love with him. Not only can he physically be upgraded but you also get to upgrade his skills too, from being able to get more water from source, to being able to wield weapons for longer before the crowbar you were holding splits into two pieces because you hit a bad guy three times with it. Stupid glass crowbars.

The game isn't without it's niggles though. I have already touched upon the repetitiveness of Mad Max, something which irked many other reviewers. Whilst I did find myself kinda bored if I tried to stay in The Wasteland for more than a couple of hours, I found the game to be just on the right side of repetitive. By that I mean that in its repetitiveness is a calmness, you know what you're doing and where you are with Mad Max, something I feel a lot of games lose now in their quests to become 100+ hour games. You can take week long gaps from playing this game and go back to it feeling refreshed rather than snowed under and unable to remember what the hell you were doing last time. My biggest problem with this game was the ability to only climb up things edged in yellow. Knee high sand-ledges are a no go, because they've not been highlighted. I felt this to be pretty condescending if I'm honest, like the designers thought that us gamers would simply not be able to complete the game without these visual prompts. Not only that, but it ruined the immersion - we are lead to believe that Max is this super-capable guy, but show him a ledge that's waist high and covered in sand and suddenly he's completely inept. Bad move.

Despite this though I have truly enjoyed Mad Max and I have been seeing it below £30 on disc recently, a price that I think offers pretty good value for money. The game is good fun, in small doses, but many of us only have a few hours to sink into a game these days anyway, which in my opinion isn;t enough for the boredom to set in. I see it being a £25 special in GAME before Christmas and if I'm right I highly recommend you pick this up.

7/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.